Skyfire 4.0 (4/22/2011)

So its been over a week since I have posted any reviews and that’s my fault, I have been stacking when it comes to this site. But I’m back with an awesome app that I knew I had to review.

Skyfire 4.0 just released and has some huge updates, and it just replaced my Dolphin Browser Mini which I loved dearly. At first, I was skeptical because in the market right under the Skyfire listing for Skyfire Video License Key for $2.99. I found that as soon as I launched the browser, I was flashed a notification that Verizon customers get the video license free for life.

So what is the video license and what does it do? According to Skyfire’s website, is that the browser finds videos on the page your currently on, beams it to their servers and trans codes it to HTML5 format and back to you in realtime from their servers. This supposedly helps because since you ain’t be using flash, it will be faster and lighter on your battery. Sounds good right?

Other options is social integration in the browser with a few callable buttons at the bottom of the browser that let’s you see and manage your Facebook, Twitter, and GoogleReader. This feature is called the Skybar.

Interface

The interface itself is clean and familiar. The new social buttons seem to load up with slight lag. The twitter social but did not recognize me the second time I loaded it but the facebook remembered me so it might be a cookie issue. Other than that transitions and menus is fluid and everything else just work beautiful and it is just so nice. You will be up and running with this browser in no time if you are coming from different browsers.

Performance

I usually click a lot of links in twitter that takes me to website that take a while to load especially in dolphin browser mini. but Skyfire browser loaded up those usual pages in lightning quick speed. One site in particular that I visit often is Android Central and it usually takes longer with my previous browsers. Skyfire cut that loading time in nearly half. I must also point out that I am using Verizon 4g lte and that is why most sites load faster, your results may vary. Pages also render very quickly thus giving the illusion that everything is just faster.

Functionality

The app functions as a browser should; it takes you to websites the user directs it to. The difference here is that it does it better. I didn’t crunch any numbers to compare load times with other browsers, but it’s exponentially faster based on my experience with the stock Android browser, Dolphin Browser HD, Dolphin Browser Mini, and Mozilla Firefox Web Browser. The app itself is a bit heavy, and feels like all these features slow down the app itself, but not the browsing. Switching tabs, and user agents is pretty slick, and the app does it’s best to make everything quicker by laying out many shortcuts to help you out. I do wish the initial app load time was as quick as Dolphin Browser Mini, but by the time that app loads and then loads a page, it’s just about the same with Skyfire.

Overall

If this was paid, I wouldn’t go for it, but it’s free, and has just replaced my favorite browser! I love it, and I know more is yet to come with updates and quick bug fixes (haven’t really found any). Get it while it’s hot! Two thumbs up!